Digital Evangelism Issues

When a video clip goes viral (ie. is passed from person to person), it can spread exponentially. You may well have seen viral video clips such as a boy using his Star Wars light saber.

The latest is a moving human story. UK’s new series of Britain’s Got Talent started on 11 April. The TV company wisely ensured that for the first show, among the usual dross of dear people with a somewhat deluded perception of their own talent, there would be two performances of quite incredible power. One was the street dance group Flawless, who gave a blindingly good demonstration of utter talent.

But the unexpectedness of the gifts of another competitor, Susan Boyle, was a news story trailed in advance, and has since gone round the world. A middle-aged unemployed spinster who lives alone with her cat, and describes herself as ‘looking like a garage’, Susan made the slightly forced humorous comments of a shy person about herself to presenters Ant and Dec before going on stage. There she told Simon Cowell she wanted to be a star as popular as Elaine Paige. The judges and audience were patronizingly expecting yet another excruciatingly bad middle-aged no-hoper. Then Susan opened her mouth. And out came a warm professional presentation of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from Les Miserables. Judges jaws visibly dropped. The audience ecstatically rose to its feet.

Within a day, there were multiple video clips of the performance posted to YouTube. News media picked up the story. And one Demi Moore, no less, tearfully tweeted about Susan. Result: six days later, the multiple video clips at YouTube had already received about 20 million viewings between them. By the seventh day, that had jumped to 40 million and has continued to pile on millions more each day. After two weeks, it had become the most popular YouTube clip of all time, beating the previous number 1 – ‘Evolution of Dance’ by comedian Judson Laipply.

There is a back story. Susan went to stage school in the early 90s, but had to leave in order to care for her elderly mother, who died two years ago. She has also had to overcome some learning difficulties resulting from being starved of oxygen at birth.

So – there you have an example, perhaps the most remarkable to date, of the power of social networking and person-to-person viral transmission for a video clip and human interest story. Watch Susan’s performance here (slightly longer version than above). And a 10-year old charity recording of ‘Cry Me A River’ which only sold 1000 copies, has also emerged on YouTube as well as Killing Me Softly and The Way We Were. Breathtaking: